Siren Song: 'Call of the Sea VR' Lands on Meta Quest 2 + Pro Today

The sun is shining, palm trees wave in the breeze, waves lap against the beach. It would be paradise—if it weren't for the fact that your husband and his entire expedition vanished from this very island. What mysteries lie beneath the surface of this seemingly peaceful place?

Find out in occult-tinged adventure game Call of the Sea VR, which emerges from the depths today on Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro. Take control of Norah as she follows the trail of her husband's missing archaeological expedition. Where did they go? What did they discover? Is anyone still alive? Investigate crumbling ruins, solve peculiar puzzles, and you just might unearth the eldritch secrets that lie at the heart of this otherworldly isle—and learn something about yourself in the process.

We sat down with Tatiana Delgado, Cofounder and Creative Director at Out of the Blue Games, to talk about the game's myriad inspirations (from Lovecraft to Myst to tabletop RPGs), all of the work involved in bringing a modern console game to Meta Quest 2, and more!

Tatiana Delgado: The concept of Call of the Sea comes from the works of H.P. Lovecraft and pulp novels, but we wanted to give our game a unique twist. Rather than focusing on a protagonist who succumbs to madness due to uncontrollable circumstances, we aimed to tell the story of a strong-willed woman on a journey of self-discovery and acceptance. In essence, a rise to sanity instead of a descent into madness.

As game developers, we were inspired by classic adventure and puzzle games that we grew up with, and Call of the Sea is a tribute to them. Our goal is to provide a gaming experience that appeals to nostalgic players who have fond memories of these types of games, as well as newcomers to the genre.

We looked to games like Firewatch and The Witness for inspiration in creating unique environments with vibrant colors and lighting. The use of light in the game serves to signify Norah's character progression and how she interacts with the island, which is itself a character with a life of its own. We also drew inspiration from games like Myst and Riven, creating peaceful and captivating environments that encourage exploration and puzzle-solving.

Another source of inspiration was adventure movies that were set in the 1930s. The lure of discovering old secrets and mysterious ruins with a hint of the occult seems to fit perfectly in this decade. That is why another of our main inspirations is the adventures of Indiana Jones.

Other authors who have influenced Call of the Sea are Jules Verne, William Hope Hodgson, and Edgar Allan Poe (who also influenced H.P. Lovecraft himself). In many of the works of these authors, in addition to mystery and the supernatural, adventure and exploration of remote places also have great weight.

Additionally, both my partner Manuel [Fernández] and I come from the world of tabletop and live-action role-playing games. As organizers, we wanted to capture one of the adventures you can find playing tabletop role-playing games and adapt it to this type of game.

But to build the island and make it accurate, depicting the Polynesian culture respectfully, we hired Yunick Vaimatapako, director of the International School of Polynesian Culture Ia Ora Tahiti in Spain. He assisted the team and is really proud of his culture's representation in the game.

TD: Both Manuel Fernández and I, cofounders of Out of the Blue, come from a VR dev background. We love VR as a medium and thought that Call of the Sea was a perfect fit.

Call of the Sea was designed with the idea of immersing the players in a beautiful environment where they could spend hours exploring and solving puzzles—and that's a premise that fits perfectly with VR. It's a medium that allows players to interact with the world on a deeper level, and we wanted to bring that to them. Now solving a puzzle requires more than just clicking on buttons. Players have to interact with devices using their hands to figure out how the mechanisms in an ancient temple work.

So with the support of Meta, we decided to start the development and embark on this adventure!

TD: Call of the Sea was a game designed for next-gen consoles in mind, so we faced two main challenges during its development.

The first ones are interaction and movement. We had to give Norah hands and decide the degree of interactions we wanted to add to the world. Coming from VR development, we knew that the more you can do in a virtual world that mimics reality, the more immersive it will be. So we decided to make all the small objects grabbable and give them physics. That was a challenge because Call of the Sea has environments with lots of details, but we invested a lot in that.

Also, puzzles needed a complete rework so players could interact with them directly: dials, sliders, buttons, levers, and so on. We have also added hints that weren’t present in the original game.

We wanted to have the HUD as clean as possible, so all in-game documents are localized in their textures to avoid adding popup screens. We also changed the fonts to make them easy to read in VR.

And we have added as many options as possible for character movement to allow players to choose what they're most comfortable with—teleport, blink, continuous, blinders...

TD: The visuals were a challenge because the game was designed to showcase the power of next-gen consoles. It features large open levels, full of intricate details, and where you have highly detailed views of those landmarks.

Our technical team worked hard to optimize assets, visual effects, and materials to keep our environments beautiful while keeping a nice frame rate throughout the game. We didn’t want to remove any element because that is what makes Call of the Sea special.

TD: I would tell them to always keep the player in mind, giving them tools to interact with the world in a realistic way to improve presence and as many locomotion modes as possible. Players experience VR very differently, and giving them options to choose from is key.

Also, having environments that are not as open and big as ours will make optimization easier. The less the player sees, the easier it is to have a high frame rate.

TD: We are currently working on American Arcadia, a flat-screen game—but we love VR, so we will see what the future brings!

TD: Call of the Sea VR was done by a small team that has poured their heart and souls into bringing it to you. We are excited to see the players' reactions to the story, and we hope they enjoy it!

Feeling brave? Determined? Adventurous? Pick up a copy of Call of the Sea VR on Meta Quest 2 + Pro today for $19.99 USD and see if you can discover the truth behind your husband's disappearance—even as the world unravels around you.